We Suck Young Blood
by Mrs.Monster
Summary: After a failed attempt at revenge, Bella and Riley find something more in each other. Sort of. Riley figured that what he was doing couldn't really be considered stalking since she didn't tell him to stop, and Bella kind of felt sorry for him. Eclipse AU.
1. Part One

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Twilight. No copyright infringement intended.**_

_**Title: We Suck Young Blood, Part One**_

_**Author: Mrs. Monster**_

_**Word count: 6500+**_

_**Beta: Yeah, it's not**_

_**Note: Because of the disturbing lack of BellaxRiley fic. I mean, really? Part one of three (maybe four). Drop me a line, kids.**_

_-R-_

It was the red shirt that brought him back. The smell that clung to satin fabric- the color drew him like an animal.

He'd been living like one. A pack master- teach, discipline, kill- everything smeared that same red. His mind was a haze of it.

Riley had gone mad. Dying in burning pain, screaming in the rain- he woke hyper aware, hungry and insane. The one who killed him, changed him (fiery red) helped to mold his mind into a sort of functioning chaos but the fact remained the same.

It was something in that scent that brought him back. Standing in the girl's bedroom, books spilling off shelves and stacked in corners; single bed with a purple blanket; old computer and cheap stereo on the desk in the corner; twinkle lights on the walls. Riley pressed the scrap of red satin to his face, soaking in as much as he could, mind slowing, calming for the first time in... he didn't know.

The room was saturated with this sweet flower smell, but the shirt was the most potent, aside from the bedclothes. Riley reached out and brushed his fingers over the small dream-catcher tied to the headboard, twinkle lights casting his hand in dim, yellow light. A different smell here, twined with hers and clinging to the strips of woven leather- he didn't like it. Riley brought her smell to his face again in an effort to calm the animal madness.

He could hear her truck approaching the small house and knew that he'd been there longer than he should have. Riley wrapped the silky material around his fist and left quickly through an upstairs window.

_-B-_

In the months since her Italian escapades with Alice, so many things had changed for Bella Swan. First she'd learned that her vampire ex-boyfriend did in fact still love her and had only left her (_broken, alone_) to protect her. It had come as an epiphany and with a blinding surge of anger.

("Don't you realize what you _did_? You _broke _me! For months, fucking months, I couldn't function. Just the thought of getting out of bed in the morning made me want to break down. I couldn't face the fucking world, and do you want to know why? Because I wasn't fucking _good enough. _For you, or for anything."

The look on his face was one of complete surprise. Bella didn't know if it was the cursing or the display of emotion, but she'd shocked the hell out of him.

"But I'm back now, and I don't want to live without you, Bella. We can-"

"What? We can do what? Pick up where we left off? After the lying and doing things for my own 'good'? When Alice showed up, I had finally started coming back to myself after months of walking around feeling like I had a _hole _ripped through the center of me. I can't risk that happening again."

He had stopped in the middle of the forest (a familiar setting for them) and now he set Bella down. They'd been on their way to speak to his family. He took a step away from her.

"What's going to happen the next time Jasper takes a snap at me? Because it will happen again, and it's not his fault, Edward. It's _not_. Will you leave again, force your family to abandon me too? Or what if we run across another nomad who likes the smell of my blood? Will you act on my behalf? For my own _good_? Victoria is still out there, you know. What if she decides she wants revenge? James was her mate. You would eliminate the threat and be gone before the dust settled. I know you would. I just- I can't go through that again."

She shook her head, leaning back against a near tree, hands splayed behind her. Bella was bone tired, weary. Bark was rough against her palms and she bit her lip, thinking of mates. Bella couldn't imagine Alice without Jasper, Rosalie without her Emmett- Carlisle without Esme.

"You said that I was your mate."

He was closer, having moved quiet as a ghost. "Yes."

"Then how could you have left me in the first place?"

Bella heard him suck in a breath.

"Bella, I-"

"We're kids, Edward. It's so easy for us to believe that we'll be with out first loves forever. But when does that ever work?"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm not sure, but I have a feeling it's what we're both thinking." She took a step toward him. "Let's get to the family. I'm anxious to see everyone."

Edward scooped Bella into is arms, holding her tightly, almost desperately. He bolted through the trees so fast that she had to close her eyes and turn her face into his chest.)

The anger had dulled to acceptance. Bella realized that while she couldn't imagine Alice or Rose or Esme without their counterparts, now she could easily imagine her life without Edward.

The Cullens returned to Forks with the exceptions of Edward who went to live with the Denalis in Alaska and Emmett and Rosalie who had moved to a place they'd built in Tennessee, near where Emmett lived when he was a human. Carlisle resumed his position at the hospital, Alice re-enrolled at Forks High and Jasper was attending classes at UW. They still accepted Bella as a member of the family even without her tie to Edward and without an immediate plan to join the ranks of the immortals.

Another change was her friendship with Jacob Black. Bella had always counted him as her best and oldest friend, but Jake had always wanted more. At least he had until Emily Young's pretty sister from the Makah reservation had come to stay in La Push. Emma Young had been getting into trouble at school and Emily's parents had turned to her and Sam for help. Jake had offered to let Emma ride to and from school with him, and the first morning he'd stopped to pick her up, that was it. Jake ad fallen into pretty green eyes and imprinted. He and Bella still maintained their friendship but it was on a more even ground. Bella spent a few evenings every week on the Rez, goofing around with the guys, or visiting with Emily, Emma and Kim.

One of the biggest changes was her graduation from Forks High, alongside Alice, Angela, Ben, Jessica, Eric and Mike. They'd had a big party at the Cullen's with a few of the wolves in attendance, and now Bella was faced with the decision of what she wanted to to with the rest of her life.

Before, it was Edward and their forever together. Now she knew that eventually she would make the change from human to vampire to keep the Volturi appeased and because it was still something she found herself wanting, without her bronze-headed ex. But first, Bella had a few other things in mind.

College, for one. She didn't know where yet but Bella had talked about it with Charlie, Renee and Phil and decided that she would take the summer and fall to decide and ten apply for spring semester courses at whichever college she chose, and was accepted to. In the meantime she continued working at Newton's Outfitters during the day, splitting her evenings between home, the Rez and the Cullen's place.

All in all, Bella's life was going pretty great. So of course, something or someone would come along to screw it all up.

_-B-_

It was a Saturday. Bella had the day off and she was hanging around the huge white and glass house in the middle of the forest. Jasper had brought her takeout on his way back from class; his semester at UW would be ending the next week. Bella was sitting of the sofa in the family room, slurping Thai noodles with her feet in Alice's lap. The smaller girl was painting Bella's toe nails a bright red. The TV quietly played the news and it didn't take Bella long to notice the concerned look on Jasper's face as the anchor spoke of continued disappearances among Seattle's homeless population.

"What do you think is going on?" Bella asked him, gesturing to the TV with her fork. He glanced at her from where he was sitting stiffly in the recliner.

"I have a few theories," Jasper said quietly.

"Any you wanna share?"

He exchanged looks with Alice, who finished Bella's left foot and moved to the right one. Alice nodded shortly.

"Carlisle and I think that someone in Seattle is building a newborn army. You remember what I told you about my time with Maria?"

Bella nodded.

"We don't know _why _anyone would need to an army of newborns in Washington, but I know the signs and I know what I've smelled around the city."

Bella wiggled her drying toes and chewed a piece of chicken, thinking.

"If things continue at this rate, we'll have to do something about it," Alice said, dropping the bottle of red polish into a little bag with the others. "We can't risk Aro and the others catching wind of this. If they send members of the guard to investigate, they could easily decide to check up on us as well."

"And they would see that I'm still human." Bella's stomach twisted and she dropped her fork into the take out container. Panic flashed through her mind but she had a plan and she was going to stick to it. They would just have to make sure that Aro's little lap dogs didn't interfere. "What do we do?"

"Get Emmett and Rosalie back, first thing. Maybe Edward. We need to investigate, figure out who is doing this and how many newborns we're looking at here. We may need more numbers," Jasper said, powering off the TV.

"I can talk to Sam and the Pack, I'm sure they'd be willing to help." If just for the simple pleasure of killing vampires. Jasper nodded once.

"When Carlisle and Esme return from their hunt, we'll decide what to do."

_-R-_

The sound of metal screeching against metal had always put Riley's teeth on edge, this was something he'd recently remembered. It had an entirely different meaning now.

"I've told you again and again to _behave_. To stop killing your brothers and sisters, _no more feeding without permission_."

One of the nameless ranks of newborns was on his knees before Riley. The young man had been causing problems; riling the others, leading massacres. Victoria had torn into Riley the night before because they'd caught the attention of the media. Riley needed to get his soldiers under control, and he needed to do it by making an example.

The rest of their army was gathered around in small groups, watching with varied expressions- fear and anger were the most prominent. He grabbed a fistful of tangled dark hair and jerked the young man's head back, exposing his throat. And he _pulled. _The screeching filled the air and Riley fought a grimace, but the stone-like flesh was giving under his hands and a moment later he tossed the decapitated head into the waiting flames. They plumed purple, a sick cloying smell that made everyone assembled shutter filled the yard of the ramshackle house they'd taken as theirs.

"Don't forget this. Any more _fucking around_, and this will be all of you. I have no problem starting from scratch and making soldiers that will actually do as their told and _fall in line_. Remember," he nudged the young man's body into the fire with the toe of his boot. "you are _disposable._"

Riley dismissed the group, knowing that would keep them manageable for a little while, but not for long. He was growing tired of handling them, and of Victoria herself. Her cloying fake promises grated on him, after he'd come back from the _red_.

Inside the house, in a small room he'd claimed as his own, Riley had a chair, a small pile of clothes and a stack of books. And hidden under the cushion of that chair, was the shirt. That was the first time he'd lied to Victoria; when he told her that he hadn't been able to get close enough to the girl's house to come away with anything. Victoria never came to the house they'd hidden their army in, so she'd never be able to smell the girl in his room, so it was his secret. His alone.

Riley pulled the shirt out and sat in his tattered chair, brought it to his face. The scent was fading, barely a trace left. He'd need to go back soon, get something else. The flower smell kept him grounded, kept him in his head and separate from the growling masses that occupied the rest of the house.

_-B-_

The Cullen's plus Bella hashed out the problem that was growing in Seattle. Emmett and Rosalie were called and were set to head back the next day. No one had called Edward yet; his melodramatic tendencies would be more hindrance then help, they'd unanimously decided. Carlisle, Jasper, Alice and Emmett would go to Seattle to investigate, and if someone really was creating an army of newborns, further plans would be made to eliminate the threat and hopefully keep the Volturi Guard in Italy where they belonged.

Bella was supposed to meet Jake, Emma, Paul, Jared and Kim at the diner on the Rez before going to Sam's to pass along a message from Carlisle, but she couldn't find her red shirt. It was one of her favorites; a tank-top made of a fake satin material that Alice had bought for her ages ago. One of the few times that Alice picked something out that Bella would actually enjoy wearing. The last time she remembered having it on was when Alice dragged her to Port Angelus for dinner, even though Bella was the only one that could eat anything. She knew she'd tossed it over the foot of her bed, and thought that she'd later added it to her pile of laundry, but it wasn't hanging with her clean clothes and it wasn't in, behind or around the hamper in her bedroom. Bella had called Alice and asked if she, for some reason, got rid of it in her bi-weekly purge of Bella's closet (they were still working on the meaning of _boundaries_) but Alice hadn't touched it.

A glance at the clock showed that she only had forty minutes to get to the Rez and Bella still had to shower, so she decided to forget the red shirt for the time being and snagged a plain forest green tank-top from her closet before moving to the bathroom.

_-R-_

Riley was beginning to feel like a _human_ again. So much so that he felt like a complete creep sneaking through the girl's house and up to her bedroom; no one was at home so he didn't have the temptation of her father's blood this time. The fact that he almost felt _guilty _for peeking into her hamper really said something. It was empty anyway, and the clothes in the drawers and closet smelled more like laundry soap and fabric softener than _her_. Riley couldn't very well steal the sheets off her bed, even thought that's what he really wanted to do. She'd notice something like that immediately.

The bookcase drew his eye; there was a small stack of books on the bedside table that held that scent heavier but she'd notice something like that as well. It was a short case, with only four shelves but the girl had stuffed them full. All manner of genres faced spine out and Riley let his fingers drift along them before plucking out a small book of poems.

He knew that Victoria wanted to kill this human girl- she was almost as mad as _Riley_ on her path of revenge, and he was supposed to help her do it. It's what the army of morons was made for, but every time he thought of this room and that smell and the twinkle lights some part of his camaraderie with Victoria and resolve to please her chipped away. The group that protected the girl, the vampires with the special gifts that had supposedly claimed this area and the blood bags here as theirs (even thought Riley hadn't seen any sign of them in Seattle, except for the blond southerner who as far as Riley could tell hadn't hunted a single human in the time they'd been building their army) Riley couldn't care less about. Kill them, burn them, whatever; it was no concern of his. But this girl? This _human_ girl? What great harm could she do?

He tucked the paperback book into an inside pocket of his jacket and left the white house, wanting to get back before anyone realized he'd gone further than was needed for a short hunt. Riley had to hide his new treasure and rid himself of the girl's smell before he met up with Victoria again. He knew that she was growing impatient with him. They were supposed to have made their move by now, but Riley kept her at bay; he didn't have a scent for the newborns, he didn't have _enough _of them to ensure victory. He knew that his excuses wouldn't last much longer, and he only hoped that he could devise a way to keep the scent alive and safe before Victoria demanded action.

_-B-_

It was confirmed- there was an army of newborns living in a rundown house outside of Seattle. They were responsible for the numerous deaths and disappearances and now Bella knew that they had to act. They didn't know _why _someone was building an army, but they way they looked at it, the reason hardly mattered.

The Cullens and the wolves had met several times, Carlisle and Sam calling a temporary truce between the two groups. Jasper trained them all and Bella... she got to just sit around and watch. She felt more than useless, with nothing at all to contribute to what was sure to be a battle that her friends were facing. It really had nothing to do with her this time.

At least that's what they thought until the day that Jasper ran her home after she'd attended a planning session; the Cullens and the Pack had decided that they would make their move the next day, hopefully taking the newborns and whoever had been making them by surprise. Jasper had carried Bella to the edge of the forest and walked with her to the porch. They'd been talking about the likelihood of danger with a surprise attack like they had planned; Jasper was fairly confident of their victory and Bella trusted his judgment completely. Who would know better than him? Standing at the foot of the stairs that led to the porch, Jasper suddenly froze, lifting his face slightly, inhaling deeply.

"Someone has been here," he said quietly and in another blink he was gone, the front door of Bella and Charlie's house hanging open.

She found him in her bedroom, smelling the books in her bookcase.

"Have you had anyone here recently? Another vampire?"

Bella thought that was a fairly stupid question from such a smart man. "I don't _know _any other vampires."

"This is not good. I'm sure I remember coming across this scent in the city, several times." Jasper twitched his fingers in a small gap between two books. "What was here? Do you have it out now?"

Approaching the case, Bella squinted down at the titles. "No, I haven't touched these, other than to rearrange them last week, in months."

"Someone took it, then. Would Charlie borrow one of your books?"

"Hardly. It was a book of poems, I think. Doesn't really run along Charlie's interests."

He stuck his face right into the space and inhaled deeply again. "Definitely not good. Unknown vampire breaking into your house and steeling a... book? Same time we discover a vampire army not two hours away. Why a book?" He was muttering to himself, but he turned to me now. "Have you noticed anything else missing?"

Bella thought about the red shirt that she still couldn't find and told Jasper about it.

"Why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because I thought that I'd just misplaced it. And I did say something to Alice."

"We need to regroup, this may change everything. C'mon." Jasper held out his arms and as soon as Bella began to approach him, he scooped her up and flung her around to his back. Bella closed her eyes and held on tight as Jasper slipped through her second story window and took off through the trees again.

_-B-_

"Seriously, what _is _it with you?" Rosalie asked from across the room.

The Cullens plus Bella, Sam and Jared were collected in the large dining room, everyone but Rosalie, Emmett and Jared sitting around the table.

"Not now, Rosalie," Esme admonished.

"No, I'm with her," Bella said. "Why would some vampire I don't even know be after me?"

Alice was sitting next to Bella, her eyes unfocused as she attempted to use her gift to find any type of answer. "I'm still not seeing anything from Victoria or Aro, anyone who may want to... um, _dispose _of you."

Bella's stomach swooped low. "Fantastic. Good to know that the monster magnet is fully operational." She glanced around the room. "No offense."

Esme reached across the table and patted Bella's hand. "None taken, dear."

In the end it was decided that Emmett would stay in Forks with Bella. Charlie would go to the Rez, where Billy and the other Elders that were in the know would keep him distracted and out of sight. Jasper would lead the attack on the newborns. The ultimate goal was to go in and catch them by surprise, eliminate the army and keep it contained as much as possible. Bella was sure that it would all work out according to plan, _because doesn't it always? s_he thought to herself with a sigh.

_-R-_

Well that didn't go according to plan, Riley thought as he trailed along Victoria on a path toward the house where they were keeping the newborns. He'd tried to delay her once again, and she'd decided that enough was enough and wanted to take matters into her own hands. No matter what she'd been telling him about the vampire that could see the future and read decisions- Victoria was impatient and becoming reckless.

They could pick up the shouts, the growls and the pain-filled screams from a mile away; the thick saccharine sweet smell of burning vampires not long after that. A move had finally been made, but by the other side. Victoria slid to a stop, Riley only a few steps behind her, once the house was visible and they could see the fight; vampires that were obviously older and better trained and enormous _wolves _tearing apart their forces en mass.

"_Fuck_," it was a whine from Victoria, in that unnerving baby sweet voice. Her hands were curled into her hair, pulling in frustration. She tilted her face to the sky and inhaled. "She's- she's not there. _Obviously_. They wouldn't let their _precious_ human anywhere near the danger."

Victoria backed up a few steps, putting her behind Riley who watched her from the corner of his eye. "Okay," she breathed. "_Okay_. We'll just find her. Come on, Riley. It's just us now." She tugged on the sleeve of his jacket as she turned, and Riley felt sick as he turned to follow. She was going to kill the girl- _the smell_. And Riley didn't know what to do.

_-B-_

Emmett was sprawled on Bella's bed, tossing her pillow into the air before catching it and blowing out a mournful sigh. She watched him from where she was sitting in the computer chair across the room.

"I know you didn't want to miss the action, but if you don't stop sighing like someone just killed your puppy, I'm going to shove that pillow down your throat," she snapped, fingers twisting nervously in the hem of her tee shirt.

When she was met with silence, Bella looked up into Emmett's amused face.

"Sorry. I'm nervous."

"Don't be. They're kicking ass as we speak." He sighed again. "And I'm here on _guard duty. _Sorry_." _

Bella dropped her socked feet to the carpet. "Maybe we should call and check on Charlie again."

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Chill. Seth and Quil have his back, he's fine."

More tense minutes passed. Bella curled her toes, drummed her fingers on the desk. She noticed that Emmett stopped pretending to breathe and knew that no matter what he said, he was nervous. His mate was fighting and he was stuck here, unable to keep her safe. Never mind that Rosalie was a fierce fighter, it was just the simple knowledge that she _was_. It really said something, Bella thought, that she hadn't really thought of Edward at all through all of this. Except maybe to curse the day she met him; genius move, a vampire dating a human. Maybe it was unfair, but Bella wasn't really in a generous mood.

Suddenly, Emmett sat up. It wasn't more than a blur of movement and Bella stood as well, startled.

"Someone's coming," Emmett said as he grabbed her, and Bella found herself shoved into her closet, down on the cluttered floor on top of discarded shoes, with a growling Emmett on the other side. The door was hollow wood and kept out any light, but she could still hear what was going on on the other side.

A window shattered and she imagined whoever the vampire was that'd been sneaking into her home landing soft as a feather on the mid grade tan carpet. Snarls and growls filled the room and Bella sank further into the depths of the closet, pulling her knees close to her chest, trying to calm the terrified pounding of her heart.

"_Victoria_?" she heard Emmett say, his voice a surprised snarl. "How- what the fuck?"

"Let's skip the monologue," a high feminine child's voice, and Bella felt bile build in her throat. How could she possibly be behind all of this? No one had seen her, smelled her; Alice was watching her decisions.

"I can smell the human cowering in the closet. If you had anything of a brain left in the head on those meaty shoulders, you'd give her to me and spare yourself the trouble," Victoria said.

"Nice try, Ginger. Never going to happen."

"Why is she so important to you unnatural things? She's only a _human_. Was she really worth all of this fighting? You all killed James so _she _could live. A vampire's life for a human's- it's not right!"

"I thought we were going to skip the monologue. At least I won't have to miss _all_ of the action today." Bella could swear that she heard Emmett's large hands rubbing together- possibly in delight. She wouldn't put it passed him.

They could probably hear her heart hammering in her chest- she could hear it pounding in her ears loud enough. Again, Bella thought that she wasn't worth all of this trouble- while she certainly didn't want to die, she didn't want those that she cared about getting hurt just so she could live. But Bella wasn't about to do anything stupid to make all of their effort for nothing, so she pressed herself further against the wall of her closet, practically holding her breath.

"Very well. You won't step aside? Riley, kill him."

_-R-_

Shattered glass littered the girl's room, yellow from the twinkle lights glinting off the slivers. The vampire guarding the door that hid the girl was possibly the largest man Riley had ever seen. He could smell her just in the closet, and he was surprised that the direct scent didn't invoke hunger- just an amazingly strong desire to _protect_.

And here's where Riley was met with a moral dilemma. (The fact that he even had morals was a testament of how much he'd come back to his human self.)

Victoria had just ordered him to kill the person who was guarding what Riley himself wanted to protect. (Though he still couldn't' figure out just _why _he wanted to protect it.) It just seemed counterproductive, if anyone asked him, which no one had. Victoria was just barking orders, and the big guy was looking at Riley like he were imagining all of the different ways that he could tear Riley apart, which he probably was.

Riley could hear her heart beating, wild and scared, and that's really what decided for him. That heartbeat pounding into his mind like waves in a storm. If he fought this behemoth, whether he won or lost, it would increase the chances of that heart _stopping_, taking with it that flower smell that had come to mean everything to Riley.

Before he'd made the conscious decision to do it, take that first move against Victoria, he had her pale throat in his hand and was lifting her off her feet. Riley knew that the only way he'd been able to lay a hand on her was the fact that he took her completely by surprise, because Victoria was _fast. _But he _had_ surprised her and his grip tightened- his fingernails pierced the flesh of her throat and the metal tearing sound that Riley hated so much filled the room in a short puncture. The practiced motions of tearing a head from it's body was routine and Victoria was still so much in shock (though Riley didn't know why- hadn't she felt him pulling away? Thought he figured that she was still mourning the loss of her real mate and nurturing the mad need for revenge so deeply that she probably even realized he was there half the time.) that the whole thing was pretty anticlimactic.

Riley's fingers dug into her hair, his other hand still at her throat, and the metal-on-metal scream only lasted a few seconds. Victoria didn't even have time to mewl in pain before he kicked her body back through the already broken window and Riley wordlessly handed her head to the big guy, who had risen out of his defensive stance.

"Um," was all the big guy said as he gripped Victoria's severed head by the hair and held it away from his body as if it were infected.

"Might want to burn that," Riley said before taking a seat in the desk chair. He didn't know what the big guy would do now- kill him? Take him? Riley doubted he'd be let go. "What's your name? I'm tired of calling you 'the big guy' in my head."

"Um."

"Your name is 'um'? Very Alice in Wonderland. Um, I think there's a fire pit out back for burning garbage, should do nicely."

"_What_?"

Riley sighed. He knew that his change of... not heart, his change of _conscious_, must have seemed abrupt, but really it had been coming for awhile. Since the first time he'd come here and stolen the red shirt and it had brought him _out of _the cloud of _red_.

"I'll explain once that's burning. Come on, Um- she's glaring at me."

_-B-_

"Bella? You can come out now. I... think?" she heard Emmett say through the door.

She hadn't really understood a damn thing that she'd heard for the last several minutes, but Bella trusted Emmett so she cracked the closet door open and peeked through the gap. Surprise had her stepping through completely; Emmett was standing there staring at the severed head he was holding, which _used _to be on Victoria's neck, and there was a guy, very obviously a vampire, sitting in her desk chair looking uneasy. And for good reason- Victoria's severed head was glaring at him.

"_What_... someone want to explain?"

Emmett just shrugged and the guy in the chair, Riley, Bella assumed, sighed and snatched Victoria's head out of Emmett's hand before shooting out of the room. Emmett gave a shout and followed, leaving Bella to bring up the rear as fast as she could, which admittedly wasn't very fast. By the time she found them outside Riley had thrown Victoria's head into Charlie's stone-rimmed fire pit and had one heavy boot planted on the back of her decapitated body which was struggling on the ground.

"Hey, Um, I think I smell a box of matches in that shed over there. Be a pal and go grab them?" Riley stuck his hands in the pockets of his jacket and looked over at Bella who was slowly approaching the scene. "Sulfur," he said, which she figured was supposed to be an explanation.

Emmett was already back with a box of long kitchen matches that Charlie kept for burning leaves and trash. "My name's not Um. It's Emmett."

Riley just shrugged before nodding toward the head that was laying face down in a pile of damp leaves. Emmett lit a match and flicked it at the mound; the flame caught on the venom leaking from Victoria's severed head and it caught quicker than gasoline.

"She wanted you dead because your mate killed hers," Riley said, flicking his eyes toward Bella and then back to the burning pile. Victoria's body under his boot had finally stopped moving. Emmett had moved around the fire pit to stand next to Bella.

"I don't know where she's been swapping her gossip but Edward wasn't even my mate. And he's not the one who killed James. Jasper and Emmett did."

"She was crazy," Riley said, finally dragging the rest of Victoria into the growing flames. A fresh cloud of purple smoke hung over their heads. "But I couldn't let her kill you."

Bella fixed her attention on him- Riley was scuffing his boots in the dirt around the fire pit. "Why not?"

Nudging her with an elbow, Emmett made a little choked sound, a kind of -"stop questioning the nut-ball vampire" sound.

"Because of your shirt and the flowers."

She could see his hands curling and uncurling in his pockets and decided that Emmett was right- she should stop questioning the crazy guy. He didn't want to kill her, so that was a plus. But that _was_ her favorite shirt.

"Can I have my shirt ba-"

"No."

"That's creepy, dude," Emmett said to Riley.

"I know," he answered on another sigh.

Emmett's phone rang and he fished it out of his pocket. "Hey, Rosie," he said before turning from Bella and Riley and lowering his voice.

The silence between them was awkward and the burning vampire fumes were starting to make Bella a little dizzy. "So thanks. For, y'know, not killing me and all."

"Yeah, no problem."

Bella licked her lips, cleared her throat. She hated uncomfortable silences.

"I'm not crazy, you know?" Riley said. "Not anymore, anyway."

"That's nice."

"Okay, so," Emmett turned back to them, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "Carlisle wants us to take crazy face back to the house."

Bella winced before nodding in agreement- Emmett wasn't really big on tact. They piled into her truck since Emmett wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Riley if he was carrying Bella- she drove while the two vampires rode in the bed.

This should be an interesting conversation.

_-R-_

Riding to his death in a rusted out old truck was kind of a downer. Riley didn't think that it was very fitting- he was a vampire after all. A creepy old hearse would be more like it, but he supposed that he didn't get a say in such things. After all, he hadn't been a vampire very long. Just over a year. Before that he'd been a mild mannered college student with an undecided major. He kept switching between philosophy and french literature. It was too bad that after his change he couldn't seem to remember a single word of the french language.

Bella- he had the girl's _name _now- pulled to a stop in a circular driveway in front of a big white house and Emmett's hand wrapped around Riley's bicep like a band of steel. He was dragged around to the back of the house and could hear Bella rushing to meet them- she tripped once and cursed loudly, drawing a small laugh from the tiny dark haired vampire standing next to the blond southerner that he'd spotted around Seattle.

The amassed group didn't seem very intimidating at first glance; the small vampire and the blond man were standing very close to each other, as were the older blond man and the soft looking woman. A tall blonde woman came to stand next to Emmett and they exchanged a private look- three sets of mates. Standing a little distance away from the group of vampires was a crowd of enormous, though not quite as big as Emmett, men, and one woman who was every bit as formidable as the men of her group. They all had dark tanned skin and smelled of _other; _Riley thought that these must be the wolves he'd seen fighting his newborns.

_His newborns_- he meant what he was always telling them. They were disposable, but still there was a little twinge of something in his middle when he realized that they were all probably dead.

When the older blond vampire, obviously the leader of the coven, broke away from the rest, Riley winced and looked to the ground. He'd gone with Emmett and Bella fully prepared to met his death. He wasn't sure how he felt about _this _guy doing it. He just looked so... _Mister Rogers_. But again- Riley didn't figure he had a say in it.

The guy clamped a hand on his shoulder, and Riley was anticipating a blow- what he got was a pat. And not just any pat- a _fatherly _pat. Then a sincere voice saying, "_Thank you_."

Riley took a step back and the hand slipped away easily. "For what?" he asked. "Building an army against you?"

Shaking his head, the guy said, "For what you did- it's not easy to turn against your maker."

Completely truthful, Riley said, "Victoria meant nothing to me."

"All the same, thank you."

Emmett left his side, following the blonde woman; Riley could feel Bella hovering behind him.

"So..." Riley looked around the group; the wolf-people were starting to leave, the sets of mates turning to each other. "You're not going to kill me?"

"We do ask that you hunt outside of our area, and stay off the reservation," the soft woman said to him. "But you're free to go."

"You saved Bella," the girl-sized vampire told him simply, flicking a glance his way before turning back to her partner.

Riley knew to quit while he was ahead, so with a final look behind him, he took off through the trees.


	2. Part Two

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Twilight. No copyright infringement intended. **_

_**Title: We Suck Young Blood, Part Two**_

_**Author: Mrs. Monster**_

_**Word count: 2800+**_

_**Beta: Yeah, it's not**_

_**Note: Thanks for the fantastic reviews asking me to continue, and for the favorites and follows. It means a lot knowing there are other Bella-Riley shippers out there. This part is much lighter than the first one, but it still has its moments. (Also, I have no idea what the name of Bella's school in Phoenix was, so I made one up.) This part is much shorter than the first one was, and that's what took me so long to get it out. I kept trying to expand it, but nothing really worked. **_

_**Drop me a line. **_

_-R-_

He supposed that what he was doing couldn't really be construed as stalking. Bella knew that he was there, she hadn't told him to go away, or leave her alone, or to stop climbing the tree in her front yard. It's not like he was _watching _her or anything, it's just sometimes she talked to him through the open window. So Riley had that going for him. That was about all he had going for him, but Riley didn't like to think about that much.

It had been a little over two months since he'd killed Victoria and the army had been decimated. Riley was still living in the house outside of Seattle, but he found the silence unnerving. Who would have ever guessed that he'd miss the mindless snarls of meals being fought over or the rhythmic grunts of the newborn vampires having sex. He had his comfy chair, his pile of books (the paperback book of poems resting on top), a spare pair of jeans, two tee shirts, his boots and Bella's red shirt. And he kind of had Bella. He _mildly _had her, as a half ass friend, Riley guessed.

All that meant was that sometimes she talked to him and she didn't glare at him, or throw rocks when he came around. Not that anyone else had thrown rocks at him, except for that one time with Rosalie but that entire situation had been a big misunderstanding.

Was it his fault that she sometimes liked to swim naked in random lakes? No. No it wasn't.

Most days Riley just sat in his chair in his room in his big empty house; he'd leave to feed or make the run to Forks (which he did at least every other day.)

So, Riley wasn't a stalker, but he wasn't much of anything else, either.

_-B-_

She wouldn't admit to anyone that she felt sorry for him. It was a thought that she kept to herself, if only for the reason that no one talked about Riley at all. It was like he was a ghost that wandered into the lives of people who didn't want to admit that they believed in them; Bella could see it on their faces. That they thought if maybe they stayed still long enough, he would just go away.

But Bella did feel sorry for Riley, so sometimes she talked to him. Or talked _at_ him, more like. She didn't think anyone else did, except for maybe the people he fed from but that probably ran more toward "_oh god please no ahh!_" and didn't really count.

Sliding a glance through her open window, Bella saw that he wasn't up in her tree this evening. She'd just gotten home from her shift at Newton's Outfitters and while it wasn't exactly hard work, she was still on her feet most of the day and she felt drained. Bella tossed her shoes into the closet and shut the door before stripping out of her socks and dropping them in the hamper. She didn't really like looking in her closet; it just brought back scared memories and the phantom smell of maybe a little pee, which was another thing she'd never admit to anyone. Hey, she was human. It happened sometimes when faced with true terror and almost certain death.

Lowering the blinds over the window in case Riley did show up (not that she was accusing him of anything but the guy _did _steal an article of her clothing so he could _smell _it) Bella stripped out of her Newton's dark green polo and tan pants, switching them for a pair of sweats and a Westvale High tee shirt that she'd brought from her old school in Phoenix. She had plans to stay in that night, make dinner for her and Charlie, go to bed early. It wasn't a very glamorous plan, but it was hers.

Bella was downstairs peeling and dicing potatoes when she saw Riley through the sliding glass doors behind the table. He was standing by the fire pit where they'd burned Victoria, looking down into the ashes. They weren't Victoria-ashes, of course, but leaf-ashes, and the look on Riley's face was enough to make Bella cross to the door and slide it open.

"Riley," she called through the screen. He looked up, hands in his pockets. "Come in here."

Now this was a first; Bella had never asked him to come inside before. She usually talked to him through her bedroom window or out on the front porch. He moved faster than she could follow; Riley never tried to act like a human. Bella slid the screen open and he stepped inside, their arms brushing together briefly. Bella could feel Riley's small pause at the contact, but it didn't even last a second.

_-R-_

The last person to touch Riley (besides trying to fend him off while he fed from them) had been Victoria, and he wasn't even sure that she counted. He'd known that she didn't truly want _him, _at least after awhile he had.

Without acting as if anything were out of the norm, Bella went back to dicing potatoes and after hesitating for a moment, Riley took a seat at the wooden kitchen table. Her flower smell was potent and it always surprised Riley that it didn't fill him with hunger. In fact, as he sat at that table, palms flat against the smooth surface, listening to the quiet _chop, chop, chop_ and the slow _thump, thump, thump _of Bella's heart, Riley felt quite peaceful.

Then Bella thrust a chunk of peeled potato in his face. "What does this smell like?"

Riley looked up at her, his mind a giant question mark, before answering, "Dirt."

Bella nodded as if this made perfect sense to her. "Edward always told me that human food smelled different to vampires. I'd just never asked him what they smelled like."

Something hopped a little in Riley's middle, _something stupid_, he thought, over her asking him things she'd never asked Edward. Riley knew all about Edward now; he was one of the many things she'd talked about when he'd been up in her tree, or sitting on the steps of her front porch. After Bella had first told him about Edward, Riley had wanted to run to Alaska and take the vampire's head off. But after a while, he'd learned that Bella had made her peace with it and moved passed the situation. She never stopped surprising him.

_-B-_

After setting the potatoes to boil, Bella got out everything she would need for meatloaf and couldn't help noticing the grimace on Riley's face.

"What about this ground beef? Or the eggs?" she asked while cracking the eggs over the meat in a large bowl.

"The eggs smell like sulfur and the meat like it's been sitting in the sun for a week. It's all just really powerful." His voice was quiet, like he wasn't used to using it anymore. Bella guessed that was probably the case.

She was quiet, thinking, while she put dinner together. Sliding the meatloaf into the oven, Bella sat across from Riley at the table.

"What do you do when you're not here?"

He was staring at the oven. "Can we go outside? Cooking it is just making the smell worse."

Bella lead the way through the house and out onto the front porch. She asked him again.

"I mostly just stay at the house when I'm not out in the city, you know-"

"Killing people?" Bella couldn't think of any way to say it nicely and couldn't think of a reason she'd want to.

"I was going to say feeding."

"Have you ever thought of not, y'know, killing people? Hunting animals instead?"

Riley seemed genuinely puzzled. "No, I haven't."

"It never even crossed your mind? You know it's what the Cullens do."

He shrugged, shoulder brushing against hers. Bella could feel the stiff-unwashed lines of his jacket.

"Might want to give that a shot," she said, lamely. With a pat on the knee, and nothing else to really say, she left him sitting there and went back in just in time to save the potatoes from boiling over.

_-R-_

Riley was on the horns of a moral dilemma. He'd gotten the impression that Bella wanted him to feed from _animals _instead of humans. It had really been all he thought about since he'd left her house the previous evening, when he'd sensed her dad nearing in his police cruiser.

Now Riley was hungry. It had been a little over two weeks since his last meal, and Bella wanted … _animals_. It was like asking a tiger to give up red meat for a lifetime of lettuce and carrots.

Riley was a _tiger _goddamn it- he couldn't give up _his _red meat.

His red meat just happened to be people. It wasn't even the meat. It was all that _blood_. But Bella, she didn't want him to hurt anyone. That's just who she was. The type of person who would save a slow moving turtle from a freeway full of speeding cars. _In other words, a moron_- a vicious side of him thought.

_No, not a moron_, he corrected himself with a small shake. _Good_. So he figured for her, he could try.

_-R-_

_Fuck that. _

Riley, for the first time since his change, wished that vampires vomited. As it was he was furiously scrubbing his tongue with the already soiled sleeve of his jacket, trying to get rid of the _wet fur _taste. He delivered a vicious kick to the dead deer laying at his feet, sending it flying. It bounced off a tree and flopped pathetically to the ground.

_Fuck that all to hell_, he thought to himself. He'd rather _starve _than feed from another animal.

_-B-_

It was getting colder, especially on First Beach, where Bella sat in the sand near the petrified log that she and Jake used to frequent. Usually she'd be on her way to the Cullen's place, but Edward had come for a visit and they weren't quite on 'look back and laugh as friends' terms yet. Instead she'd gone to Emily and Sam's for dinner but hadn't felt like sitting around and watching the wolves make gooey faces at their imprints- Emily and Sam, Jake and Emma, Jared and Kim. She and Paul had exchanged grimaces before parting ways. It was only around eight-thirty and the last thing she wanted to do was go home and listen to Charlie watch whatever game was on.

Her life had reached a state of day-to-day monotony; if she wasn't at work, she was with the Cullens. If she wasn't with the Cullens she was spending time with the Pack. If she wasn't spending time with the Pack, she was sitting at home. And if she wasn't just sitting around like an idiot, she was talking to Riley. Which may have further proved her idiocy, but hey- he hadn't tried to eat her. Yet. Bella knew that she should be putting forth a little more effort toward her college search, but she couldn't really bear the thought of leaving Forks. It had nothing to do with Edward anymore- Bella just felt safe there. Which really, she thought, _cemented _the fact that she was an idiot. Since she'd come to Forks it seemed like there wasn't a single moment that wasn't wrapped up in danger, angst or intrigue. Until just then. After Victoria's final attempt. After Riley had saved her. But this was her future, and Bella really needed to start taking it seriously.

She stood and brushed the sand from her jeans before walking back to Sam and Emily's for her truck. When she got home Bella wasn't watching where she was going and tripped over Riley as she was crossing the front porch. Her palms took most of the impact against the hard wood and Bella felt splinters dig into her hands- her legs were laying over Riley's face and she heard him sigh loudly before flipping over and sitting up.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Bella nudged the side of his head with the toe of her sneaker.

"I tried," he said, fixing her with his near-black stare.

"Tried what?"

"The animal... _thing_. I can't do it. I just- don't ask me to do it again. You can't make me."

It was Bella's turn to sigh as she pulled her feet under her butt. "I'm sure it wasn't _that _bad." She started to pick at the splinters imbedded in the fleshy part of her palm but when Riley zeroed in on the small drop of blood welling from one, she tucked those under her butt too.

"You don't _understand_. It was like licking a dead dog's asshole. And it was _wet _and it was terrible and- I would rather starve than ever drink from an animal again. I would literally rather wither away until I was nothing more than a dried out _husk_ than ever drink from another animal." He was still flat on his back and now he threw an arm over his eyes. Bella fought a real desire to point and laugh at him.

"Oh stop being pathetic and go eat someone. Someone who's not me," Bella added quickly when he sat up in a blur.

"You're- don't fuck with me here."

"I mean, it's not the best thing in the world. But it's your life or... yeah." Bella wanted to slap herself for her eloquence but her finger was still bleeding a little. He was gone in less than a thought and Bella took herself into the house and wrapped a bandage around the tip of her finger.

_-R-_

As Riley left Forks for Port Angelus, he couldn't help the _light _feeling that filled him. He hadn't disappointed her, she wasn't condemning him _and _he got to feed from a human. Riley could almost taste it- the skin popping under his teeth, that first hot gush- it reminded him of one of his retained human memories, of being a child and sitting in his grandmother's kitchen eating grapes. They popped and gushed too, but the blood was just _so much _sweeter.

He still didn't know why her opinion mattered so much to him. Why he was so relieved that she wasn't disappointed that he couldn't do the animal thing. Maybe it was her scent, or maybe it was her words- mostly kind, but never sugarcoated. The only thing that Riley knew was that it did, _she _did matter to him. Bella was the only good thing to happen to him since he'd been dragged into the land of the dead, and Riley was going to do everything in his power not to give her a reason to cut him out.

_-B-_

After making the decision on First Beach to begin taking herself and her future seriously, Bella chose a major and applied to colleges all over the country- with the exception of any schools in Arizona or in Washington. She'd had time to bask in the glow of that fact that no one wanted to kill her, and now she wanted to go somewhere _different_. Somewhere she'd never been and make a life for _herself_. Not one that revolved around her mother, like she had in Phoenix, or one that centered on taking care of her dad. Or a life that was cemented to Edward's.

For once, Bella wanted to be in focus. She wanted to concentrate on herself and actually building something for Isabella Swan, instead of being just a caretaker, a daughter or someone else's entire world.

She wasn't surprised at the rejection letters she received from most of the big colleges she'd applied to. Her senior year of high school was an enormous smear on her academic record. Still, she'd been hoping that the essay she'd written to send along for consideration would help her make her case.

Bella was only accepted to three out of the ten colleges she'd applied to and it took just a little over a week to make her decision and then in a flurry of paperwork and tuition checks pooled between Charlie, Renee and Phil, Bella was a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

She was moving to the other side of the country.


End file.
